From "Way Back!" to Way Down

Driving home from parts unknown on Sunday, I flipped over to 98.5 thinking I might catch the late football game. No luck, but before I switched it off, I heard a voice I recognized. It took a few minutes before I realized it was none other than Jerry “WAY BACK!” Trupiano. I listened in horror for a few minutes, thinking about the guy that had manned the booth with Castig for so many years and had been a part of the historic 2004 season was relegated to taking calls from drunks after a Pats game on a second-rate sports-radio station (hey, they had Red and I as guests on the morning show!).

True, his signature call was getting a little tired when many of the “Way Backs” were being caught on the warning track…but still, this was Troop. Fourteen years calling the Sox and getting mentioned in a Stephen King novel had to buy you more street cred than this. It felt like going to your high school reunion to find the football hero was now pumping gas in your home town between parole visits and the girl whose ass you coveted as a senior was pushing two bills and herding around a bunch of dirty-looking kids (at least one of whom was sired by the aforementioned football hero).

During the few painful minutes I listened, Troop uttered the phrase “my career has come to this” at least two or three times. Sadly, I don’t think it was part of his radio-show banter…it sounded sincere. I guess it can happen to anyone.